Misfit strain induced magnetoelectric coupling in thin ferroic films

Abstract

We show that the misfit strain due to the film-substrate lattice mismatch strongly increases the value of the quadratic magnetoelectric coupling. The coupling, size effects, and misfit strains cause strong changes in the phase diagrams of ferroic films at zero external magnetic and electric fields. The antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic phase transitions for compressive or tensile misfit strains open the way for the tailoring of magnetic and electric properties of ferroic films leading to advanced applications.